


Minimal Loss

by stardustginger



Series: Spencer Reid Imagines [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Reader Insert, imagine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 09:56:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21408292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustginger/pseuds/stardustginger
Summary: Spencer is surprised to see a familiar face when he goes undercover as a Child Protection Officer in a cult in Colorado. Based of of Season 4 Episode 3: Minimal Losses. Credit for much of the dialogue goes to the writers of this episode.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Series: Spencer Reid Imagines [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540435
Comments: 4
Kudos: 106





	Minimal Loss

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Talk of child abuse and pedophilia, minor torture, death of a child, death generally, an explosion

Spencer and Y/N’s relationship was one that absolutely had to be based on trust. Each of them had jobs that required keeping secrets from each other. His time at the BAU left him with a lot of confidential information and hers as an investigative journalist required her to keep quiet about many a sensitive matter. And they were alright with that. As long as they were both honest with each other when it came to the important things, like their feelings and needs and problems, then the work stuff didn’t matter. What really mattered was how much they cared for each other. Which is why she was fine with him not being able to tell her about many of his cases and why he didn’t question in when she told him that she would have to go to Colorado for a bit, and that she would only be able to communicate occasionally through her partner.  
He was however disappointed that this meant that he would have no way of letting her know that he was gonna be in the same state for a case involving a local cult when he was told about it a few weeks after she had left. But like her, Spencer had a job to do.   
He and Emily were only beginning their interviews with the children when multiple armed members of the commune rushed in and ordered them onto their feet. Cyrus West, the very man they had been called here to investigate followed.  
“We just got a very strange call, from a news reporter. Is there anything you want to tell me, about a raid maybe?” He asks after the child services officer that they had come along with she asks what is going on. His voice is calm, and after seeing all of the agent’s reactions, he answers his own question, “They didn’t know.”  
Almost immediately after, the group begins leading them to a hatch in the floor, forcing them into a shallow tunnel. The gun shots start soon after. Reid isn’t sure whether the members of the cult or the local police had fired first, but he knows that it doesn’t look good for him and Emily either way.   
They are stopped in a large bunker like area where Cyrus’s followers have gathered. That’s when he sees her. She looks different here, her hair styled differently than normal and her clothing much more drab, and lifeless. Other than that, though, she’s definitely his girl. Her gentle demeanor while trying to comfort the scared children around her is immediately recognizable to him.  
It takes a moment for Y/N to notice him staring at her, but when she does her posture changes. Her shoulders tense up and her jaw clenches. Spencer instinctually starts to step towards her, but all it takes is one concise shake of the head from her to stop him. He knows what she’s thinking immediately. Please. Don’t blow my cover.  
It makes sense, Spencer thinks. Why else would she be hunkered down at this remote commune if not to try to protect the children. She must have had heard the same story they had. As surprised as he initially was to see her here, he understands now. After all, her protective nature had been part of what made him fall in love with her in the first place. She would never be able to just stand by having heard about what Cyrus was doing to the young girls in the group.  
So, instead of heading towards her and making sure she is safe like he aches to, he stays put, trying to hear what is being said by those around him. He hears one of the men say something about the officers trying to breach the door and wonders why they hadn’t been informed about the raid before coming in. He knows for a fact the JJ had checked in with local law enforcement first, and it doesn’t seem like the officer they had come in with knew anything about this.  
“It’s the state police. I’m an officer of the state,” Nancy says. Prentiss tries to talk her down, but the woman isn’t having it, “I can talk to him.”  
She heads towards the sound of the gunfire despite Prentiss and Reid’s protest, just barely making it through the entrance before the two agents following her are stopped by a large man with a gun. They wait a moment, until West comes back, preaching to his followers to stay calm. His reply after Emily voices her concern for Nancy’s safety is confirmation of exactly what they had feared, “It wasn’t us.”  
“What?! You can’t shoot it out with the cops. You have children here,” She exclaims angrily, fearfully, her voice sharp. Spencer can see Y/N not far behind her, listening intently.   
“I didn’t start this,” West replies, before ordering his men on how to defend their base. They follow him without question, leaving the others to wait anxiously. Spencer keeps a close eye on Y/N. He watches as she continues to try to comfort the kids around her, as well as a few of the adults. All of the followers crammed down here are clearly frightened by the sudden pandemonium spreading around them. The gunshots are still thundering, even underground in this dull tunnel. He’s thankful to see that Y/N seems to be keeping a level head. Not that he had ever doubted her abilities. He knows that she is excellent at her job. And he’s seen firsthand just how brave she truly is. But it doesn’t stop him from being left in absolute awe of her every time.  
The firing stops and one of the men tells everyone that the officers are pulling away. “Not for long,” Spencer warns quietly.

Y/N stays hidden around the corner after Cyrus directs the rest of his members to head to the chapel. He had kept Spencer and Emily behind as well as some of the more trusted men in the group. She listens in on their conversation from her hiding place. Three members are dead, including the parents of the youngest child. Her heart aches for the baby, but she knows that there was nothing she could have done.   
Her partner, Emmett, was working with their paper’s local sister company on the story, finding all the information he could on this particular religious sect as well as it’s higher ups. She had a trail phone hidden in the room she had been given so that they could stay in touch while she was off the grid. He would have told her if he had been informed about the raid. And based off of her boyfriend’s surprised expression, the BAU hadn’t been warned about it either.  
“Distribute weapons and ammo,” Y/N’s breath catches in her throat at Cyrus’s order. He’s going to try to fight his way out of this. Which means that more people are going to get hurt in the process. She knows how operations like this go. “I prayed this day would never come, but it has,” The eccentric man continues, “God will see us through.”  
She hastily ducks behind a door when one of the men West had been talking to walks down the hallway she is in. This is gonna get ugly, she thinks to herself, and starts to sneak back to the chapel before she can get caught eavesdropping. 

When he and Prentiss are brought to the chapel where everyone else is, Spencer is very purposeful in sitting directly in Y/N’s line of sight. It’s important to him that she knows that he is there with her, looking out for her. A couple moments later the front door is opened, allowing someone Spencer immediately recognizes as Rossi to walk in with a box filled to the brim with medical supplies. He makes eye contact with his fellow agents before his eyes search for someone else. He doesn’t look surprised when he sees Y/N like Reid had expected him to. Emmett must have already alerted the team to her investigation.  
Rossi and West speak for a moment. The conversation is textbook. It’s all just normal talk of letting the children go that comes with any negotiation. Spencer’s doing a pretty good job of staying calm. When Waco is mentioned though, he feels his heart speed up and his palms begin to form bullets of sweat. He doesn’t want to think about just how badly a case like this can go, even though he knows that he must. He has to keep a level head and trust his team to get Emily and him out of here, along with Y/N and all of the other civilians whose lives are now in more danger then they probably even know.

She knows that she needs to keep her reactions to a minimum as to not blow her cover, but Y/N can’t help but let out a small sigh of relief when she sees Rossi walk through the front door. That means the BAU are in charge and there is no one in the world who she would rather place her life in the hands of then Spencer’s team. Other then maybe the Avengers, but that seems like a long shot, with them being fictional and all.   
She eyes the large box in his hands closely. It seems to just be full of basic medical supplies, but she’s read the CIRG handbook before, and she knows that they would have planted bugs before bringing it all inside. That’s good, she thinks. Spencer and Emily will be able to get these people to talk. She knows how good they are at their jobs.   
It’s obvious to Y/N that David had already known she was here before he came in, as he makes sure to search her out in the crowd and make eye contact, as if to reassure her. Emmett was probably talking to the team now. He was sure to fill Aaron in on everything that they had learned. Still, she fears it won’t be enough to get everyone out of here. Even after hearing David assure Cyrus that this isn’t Waco, a part of her can’t help but fear just how deadly this situation could become. In her time at the commune, Y/N had gotten to know the hierarchy pretty well. She knows that not everyone here is entirely as faithful to West as they would like to seem, but enough of them are. He had some of these people so far under his thumb that she knows they’d be willing to die for him, kill for him even.   
She’s still thinking through all of the ways this can go even after Rossi makes his exit. She weighs her options as wine starts being handled out to the members, including her. Jonestown crawls it’s way to the front of her mind as she stares down at the plastic cup in her hand. It could be poisoned, but if she doesn’t drink it, and this turns out to be a false alarm, she’ll be in big trouble. It’s too early for a final, big move like this. So, with her heart pounding against her rib cage, she downs it all in one swallow, praying she’s made the right call.  
“Trust in God with all your hearts,” Cyrus preaches, but Y/N quickly stops listening, instead looking around at the people sitting near her. She’s surrounded by families and innocent people who had only come here seeking acceptance and news lives. It wasn’t their faults that they’d been sucked in by West. He truly is gifted. He knows how to work people, how to make them feel entirely reliant on him. All she wants is to help them, but she fears that it may be too late when she hears what he says next, “We will be with him soon. We have drank the poison together.”  
Y/N forces herself to keep a straight face as she processes what has just been said. Her eyes stay focused on the back of the head of a man sitting a few pews ahead of her. He begins to shake his head wildly as he realizes what has just happened. A woman sitting next to her begins to wail. It’s only after the reactions of those around her bring her back to the present moment that Y/N turns her head to look at Spencer. He’s looking towards the front where Cyrus and his second in command stand. Emily whispers something to him before he turns his head back towards her, replying in a hushed tone. Y/N wishes she was close enough to hear what they are saying. It only takes him a moment to turn his attention her way though. He must see the fear in her eyes, even as she tries to hide it, because his eyebrows crease like they always do when he’s worried about her. A wave of relief rushes through Y/N when he shakes his head slightly at her. Emily’s shoulders have slumped forward and she exhales a deep sigh. They must know something that she doesn’t.  
Oh. Thank God! She thinks. Y/N has always been aware of the risks her job comes with, and she’s never been one to shy away from risks, but she it doesn’t mean she has a death wish. She has only ever wanted to help people.  
Now that she can think clearly without the idea of incoming death plaguing her mind, she starts to pay closer attention to those around her. Their reactions differ heavily. Many cry, some don’t respond at all, and a few even smile slightly. It seems to be about a fifty/fifty split between those who are fearfully of what has just happened and those who are completely accepting of it. Those who haven’t been fully brainwashed yet are terrified. They’re shaking, sobbing and clutching their loved ones close.  
“Be still. There was no poison,” Cyrus confirms what Spencer had already seemed to know. “Instead a test of faith. Because your adversary the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, choosing who he may devour! Watch each other for signs of weakness. You are your brother’s keeper.”  
He’s dividing them, Y/N realizes. That can’t be good sign.

West is keeping Reid and Prentiss separate from his followers now. They’re sat in the tunnel when he marches in with one of his most trusted followers behind him, gun in hand. “Which one of you is it?” Cyrus pulls his own handgun out of the waist band of his jeans as he speaks, “Which one of you is the FBI agent?”   
“Why do you think one of us is an FBI agent?” Spencer asks, playing dumb. And why does he only know about one of us, he wonders to himself.  
Cyrus doesn’t reply, instead raising his gun to Spencer’s head as he speaks, “God will forgive me for what I must do.”  
Spencer tries again to destress the situation, “I don’t- I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
“One of you does. Who is it?”  
“Me.” Reid’s eyes fly towards Emily. What is she doing? “It’s me.” She repeats without hesitating.  
Before Spencer can do anything for her he’s distracted by another armed man pulling Y/N into the room by her hair. “I’ve got the reporter,” He tells the other two men in the room.  
“Lock her in one of the empty rooms and keep an eye on her,” West orders, before grabbing Emily by her hair and dragging her out of the room as she cries out in pain.   
There’s nothing Spencer can do as he watches his partner and the love of his life get pulled away from him. He feels entirely helpless now, as he sits back on his heels with a gun pointed in his face. All he can do is hope that they can handled themselves, and that his team can help them before it’s too late.

Y/N’s left sitting in a small room with sand colored walls and a lone, rod iron framed bed as she waits to see what will happen to her next. She isn’t sure how they had found out about her and Emily’s real identities, but she’s thankful that Spencer seems to have been left out of it.   
Some of the supplies that David had brought sit on a shelf hung on the wall. “If you can hear me,” Y/N starts, hoping that there is a bug in the room with her, “Don’t do anything rash. There are children here. Focus on them.”  
She doesn’t have to sit alone in the room for long before the door opens and Cyrus walks in, closing it behind him. “What’s your real name?” His voice is steady. It worries Y/N just how calm he seems to be.  
“Y/N L/N,” she replies not seeing any way that the truth could worsen this situation for her.  
“I trusted you, Y/N. I brought you into my home, I provided for you. Why must you force me into this situation?”  
“I’m not forcing you to do anything.” She replies, but this only seems to anger him.  
His hand draws back quickly and before she can do anything, he brings it back across her cheek hard enough to cause blood to begin flooding her mouth. “Who have you told about us Y/N?” he asks as he grabs her hair, pulling her head back and forcing her to look up at him.  
“I’m not telling you anything.” She won’t give Emmett up. There’s no way in hell that’s happening.   
Cyrus doesn’t take well to her defiance. He uses his grip on her hair to throw her to the ground before kicking her a few times mercilessly in the ribs. Y/N thinks she can feel something crack from the force of the blows. It feels as though a vacuum is sucking all of the air from her lungs and not allowing her to pull any back in. Still though, she remains faithful to her partner. “I’ve dealt with worse men then you. You can’t break me.” She tells him, voice firm despite the pain she is in. She hopes that if the team is listening, they’ll trust her and not force their way in prematurely.   
He pulls her up by a vice like grip on her arm and throws her back against the wall roughly enough to bruise before he lands a punch to the side of her face. The ruthless blow knocks her head back against the wall behind her forcibly. She thinks he’s quoting scripture at her but is in too much pain to comprehend what is being said, much less place it. He kicks her once more in the leg being turning and exiting the room as she falls to the floor while screaming out in anguish. Y/N doesn’t think that her leg is broken thankfully, but it sure hurts like hell.  
The man that had been guarding her door comes back into the room with a length of rope and ties her hands behind her back. He forces her to sit on the bed against the back wall and then leaves the room, locking the door behind him. Y/N realizes with a start that she is completely and utterly trapped like a dog in a cage.

Cyrus eventually meets back up with Spencer and the follower he had been left with. His knuckles are bloody and bruised. Spencer feels sick at the thought of what he must have done to Y/N and Emily. The profile makes it clear that a man like this doesn’t take kindly to being lied to. He’d already known that Cyrus would lash out, but he chosen to stay in denial about it. Now he can’t anymore. Reid has to think quick as West starts to question whether or not he was aware of Prentiss’s true identity. He decides it’s in everyone’s best interest for him to lie and gain the trust of the psychopath in the front of him. All it takes is a couple carefully worded answers for his plan to work. He even manages to keep his cool as West talks about a fifteen-year-old being an adult, despite the fact that Cyrus’s defense of his abuse causes rage to boil up in Spencer’s chest like in a volcano. He forces the molten hot lava to stay down though, barely stopping himself from lashing out. He knows that to help Y/N and Emily he has to stay calm.  
“I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve investigated abuse allegations against small religious groups. Almost all of them turn out to be false.” He continues to lie. All he has to do now is convince them to release some of the hostages. His team will know what to do from there.

Y/N isn’t sure how longs she’s been in this dim room, but her head still hasn’t stopped ringing since her interrogation. She wishes that she had some sort of idea of where Spencer was. Of whether or not he was still safe. Or as safe as he could be given the situation, at least.   
Her worried thoughts are cut short as the door opens once again. It’s a different man than before this time and while he is shorter than the other guy, he also looks stronger. Not that that changes anything. All of the men are armed. And she can’t fight back with her arms tied behind her.  
The short man grabs her elbow harshly, forcing her to stand and then pulling her to limp behind him. He leads them back into the chapel without saying anything and she doesn’t dare ask any questions. She’s already gotten herself into enough trouble. She’s pushed through the doorway before he forces her to stop and stand next to it. A second later she sees Emily being pulled through behind her. She’s in just as bad a shape as Y/N is, worse even, yet she still looks deeply concerned for her friend. Emily knows she was trained for this. Y/N wasn’t.  
Both women give each other a once over, checking for serious injuries as Cyrus starts to read a list of names. Neither of them gets the chance to say anything to the other before they notice Spencer walking over to them. Y/N can tell that he’s trying to keep a neutral face, but she knows him far too well for him to hide his feelings from her. She can see the slight tension in his jaw and the way his eyebrows furrow slightly. Seeing that she is hurt is killing him. And she knows he’s blaming himself.   
“I’m ok, baby. I promise,” Y/N whispers once he’s close enough to hear her. This does little to help Spencer feel better. He can see the dried blood on her face and the way she’s keeping all of her weight on one leg.   
He can’t question her further without giving them up though, so he turns to Emily instead, asking her the same silent question. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” She tries to reassure him.  
“I’m so sorry,” Spencer all but whimpers, looking between the two women. Emily shakes her head at him, and it takes almost everything Y/N has left not to reach out to him. To try to comfort him in some way. She wishes that she could tell him that this isn’t his fault. That he didn’t do this to her, but she can’t without putting him in danger.  
“Look at who he’s releasing,” Emily turns their attention back to the group.  
“It’s the ones who failed the loyalty test,” Spencer whispers back. “We’ll get word to the team. Wait for a sign from outside to indicate what time the raid will come.” He gives them both one last concerned glance before heading back to Cyrus as he finishes listing names.   
Y/N watches as he says something to the other man. She almost wants to laugh at how quickly he’s tricked West into trusting him. Then again, with that face, not to mention intellect, who can blame him. A second later West motions to two of his men to take them back. This time, as she’s pulled back upstairs and down a long hallway, Y/N is able to see that she is only being kept a few doors down from Emily. If anything happens, they’ll be able to get to each other pretty easily.

Spencer knows better then to trust Cyrus when he tells Rossi that they’ll be surrendering tomorrow. He won’t go down that easily. Reid continues to focus on inserting his way into the main hierarchy of the group, even going so far as to explain why they allowed some of the followers to go when the man who seems to be second in command asks. He can’t allow his seething anger at seeing Y/N and Emily hurt to cloud his judgment, no matter how hard that may be.   
And it seems to be working. “Listen to him,” Cyrus defends Spencer when the other man lashes out at him, “Tell him.” He orders.  
“They failed the test,” Spencer explains that Cyrus had given his followers an opportunity to prove their faith when he had told them that had drunken poison, as well as how some of them had failed. “That’s why he wants the media to bear witness to your true final act of sacrifice.”  
“How do you know that?” The follower asks.  
“I’m always looking for signs of things to come,” He hopes that the team catches his message. He’s completely helpless if they can’t find a way to tell him when they are coming in. If they wait too long, it’ll be too late.

Y/N’s finding it hard to stay awake as the night progresses. Her body is wearing out from the trauma it has suffered. But she knows that she has to be ready. If she had to guess, she’d say the final raid would happen sometime while everyone was supposed to be sleeping. There’s nothing she can do now though. It was up to the BAU to get everyone out safely.  
She doesn’t know how long she’ll be able to keep herself alert. Her head is pounding, and she can feel the fatigue setting into her muscles. Maybe, she thinks foggily, I can rest my eyes for just a moment. 

She must have fallen asleep, despite her best efforts, because she awakes to the door swinging open forcibly. A woman she recognizes as Kathy walks inside hurriedly. She’s Jessica, Cyrus’s child bride’s, mom. “They’re gonna blow the place up. We have to go.”  
“What!? Where is Emily?” Y/N asks hastily as begins to untie her hands.  
“She’s right outside. We need to get everyone in the tunnel before 3:00.”  
“What about the man she came here with. Have you seen him?” Y/N can’t keep her voice from trembling as she asks about Spencer.  
“He’s in the chapel with Cyrus. We have to go now.” Jessica pulls Y/N out the door and back into the hallway where she can now see Emily waiting for them.  
She rushes towards the brunette, not stopping, but instead having Emily follow her. The tremor still remains as Y/N turns to talk to her, “I’m going to the chapel to find Spencer. I’ll meet you outside. Just get everyone out of here before it blows.”  
“No! There’s no time. We have to get everyone out of here first.”  
Y/N shakes her head wildly, “You can do that without me. I need to find him.”  
Emily can see the fear in her eyes as Y/N pleads with her. She knows that she won’t listen to reason, so instead of fighting and wasting both of theirs time her she agrees, “Ok. The team should be on their way by now. I’ll be right behind you.”

Spencer is standing up against the wall behind the second in command when he catches sight of Y/N hiding behind a pillar towards the back of the room, just out of sight of Cyrus. He tries to motion for her to leave without catching anyone else’s attention, but she refuses, shaking her head at him. The bombs are all set, and Spencer knows that it won’t be long before Cyrus detonates them. He also knows that when Y/N has her mind set on something, it’s almost impossible to change her mind. And right now, she’s decided that she’s not leaving without him.  
Shit! Thinking on his feet, he turns back to the man in front of him. “Jeremiah 29:11,” he begins, “‘I have for you’ declares the Lord ‘Plans to prosper and not to harm you. Plans to bring you hope and a future.’ Is blowing yourself up part of the prosperous future God wants for you?”  
Cyrus has a gun in Spencer’s face by the time he’s done speaking and he immediately sees Y/N starting to move from where she is crouched down and hidden. He puts his hand out towards her, motioning for her to stay put as West begins to angrily question him, “You think you know the word better than I?”  
“No. I’m just demonstrating that you can use the bible to manipulate anything.”  
“Matthew 10:24- ‘Do not suppose that I’ve come to the earth to bring peace. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.’” Cyrus rams his gun into Spencer’s ribs as he finishes speaking. Spencer bellows out in response to the pain he feels. “You cannot convert my brothers.”  
The next blow to his ribs causes Spencer to curl in on himself and fall to the floor.

Cyrus is clearly confused when he sees Y/N rush to Spencer’s side, but he chooses not to question the concerned girl in front of him, instead holding up the detonator, ready to hit it and blow himself, as well as everyone else up. “No one had to follow. God could have stopped me.”  
Y/N doesn’t notice them coming in before SWAT and Morgan have the chance to shoot and kill both of the men in the room with her and Spencer. Her attention doesn’t stay on them for long because she looks back at her boyfriend. “He just did,” Spencer wheezes.  
“Are you two alright?” Morgan calls out, rushing towards you both.  
“Fine. Where’s Emily?”  
Y/N’s the first to notice Jessica walk into the room, as well as the anger that crosses her face as soon as she sees Cyrus’s body.  
“We got her out of here.” Morgan notices the stony-faced girl next, “Sweetheart, come with me. We need to get you out of here.” Morgan clearly doesn’t see what Y/N sees. There’s no helping this girl. She’s too far gone. “Come on. Let’s go, right now.”  
Jessica barely stops at Cyrus’s body before moving towards the detonator that had made it’s way to the floor near him during the firefight.   
“RUN!” Spencer’s already standing, and he pulls Y/N off the floor hurriedly before racing towards the door. Her legs are far shorter than his though, and there’s nothing he can do to stop her from falling a few feet behind him.

The blast throws her through the air as it goes off. The heat around her feels as if she were hovering over the face of the sun. Her impact with the ground is painful and she can’t hear anything past the ringing in her ears. The smoke burns her eyes, while also making it impossible for her to see more than a few feet in front of her. It’s chaos. Pure, unbridled chaos. There’s no other word to describe in.   
As the ringing in her ear’s fades, the sound around Y/N starts to come back to her slowing. It fades in like something out of a movie. She can hear people yelling. Children calling out for their parents, friends yelling out to each other. But only one voice stands out to her. “Y/N! Y/N!”  
“Spenc-“ Y/N tries to call out to him, but a fit of uncontrollable coughing cuts her off. It’s enough though, as she feels a hand rubbing up and down her back. Another, wraps itself around her front, pulling her up from her hunched over position and back, so that her side now rests against a warm chest.  
Y/N’s unable to open her eyes until the coughing fit passes, but when she finally does, she recognizes the checkered shirt she’s staring at. “Spencer?” She’s barely able to mumble as she reaches a hand out to press against his.  
“I’m fine, sweetheart. Let me see your face.” The hand that isn’t supported her back moves to gently cradle her face, pulling upwards so that he can check it for any damage. The sound he makes is a half sigh, half sob as he sees that all the scrapes and bruises seem to be superficial. “Thank god your ok, baby.” He begins to cry in earnest now as he pulls her back into his chest and puckers his lips against the top of her head.  
He’s got her cradled against his body as an EMT walks over to where they sit just a few feet away from where the building is still burning. He refuses to hand Y/N over to the woman, instead picking up his girlfriend’s shaking body and walking her to the closest free ambulance. Spencer sits down on the bed inside of the emergency vehicle before placing her softly next him, allowing to continue leaning on him as the EMT starts to check her over.  
Y/N finds comfort in the feeling of Spencer’s solid body against her own. She focuses on his breathing, even as bright lights flash around her and the EMT moves her hand over Y/N’s aching body, trying to follow his lead. Another round of coughing starts though, so the woman checking on her moves to grab an air mask, fitting it over her head with Spencer’s help.   
“She should be alright. She might have some broken ribs, but other than that, I think she just needs some fresher air. I’m gonna drive you both to the hospital just to be safe.” It’s clear that Spencer isn’t leaving the injured girl’s side, so the woman leaves him in the back as she closes the doors.  
He doesn’t begin to speak until he feels the car begin to move, “I’m so sorry Y/N. I’m so, so sorry I let this happen to you. I should have stopped it.” He’s crying again now and so is she.  
Spencer tries to stop her from removing her mask but it’s too late. “Don’t- Don’t you dare apologize for what that man did. This isn’t your fault, my love.” Her voice is raspy, and she has to put the mask back on as soon as she’s done, but Spencer still gets the idea. His pulls his lip in between his teeth as he nods at her. This time, it’s Y/N who moves into Spencer’s lap. He knows she still need his comfort, and lord knows he needs hers too, so he wraps his arms around her and doesn’t let go.


End file.
